Other Worldly
by Strifegirl27
Summary: This was my response the challenge in Qwerty's challenge thread. What will happen when Stella is pushed to the edge? What if Noctis and Gang have bit off a bit more than they can chew? Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

**I, for some foolish reason that I wish could be credited to anything other than boredom, have agreed to take on one of the challenges from Qwerty's thread in the FFXIII forum… This was the challenge:**

**Muhahaha I lied, you think I would tell you the challenge and spoil the story!?! If you really want to know what the challenge was check out the thread!**

**So I am super nervous about this because I have never written fan fiction before, let alone any other fiction! I have extensive experience as a essay writer, *sigh* (you just gotta love English professors!! Just kidding, I actually do!) but never as a fiction writer. **

**So this is the first chapter, feel free to have a look and if you are going to review, I give full permission to be brutally honest! I am sorry if the grammar is poor, or if there are any mistakes, I only vaguely proofread it. I figured that I would let you guys tell me if it's worth writing this story! If you guys feel that I should go ahead with it, I will tackle the story with a much more critical eye!**

**And I have also promised Anime something…*ahem* The names of Gareth, Durante and Felix for the Scar Guy, Glasses Guy and Shotgun guy, respectively, belong to Anime! It was her brilliant mind that created these wonderful names that so aptly match their persona. Since she did such a great job, I figured why reinvent the wheel? So thank you to the gracious Anime who allowed me to use her names for this story!**

**There, how was that for giving you credit Anime??**

**And without further ado…**

It was a peaceful evening in the dark city. Beautiful stars outline the majestic silhouette of the castle and the silence floats on the dark night. Suddenly, a shrill cry is heard from the castle. It pierces the night like a knife.

Within the castle, bodies rustle from their slumber, and questioning murmurs can be heard. What is going on? Who called out? Is there trouble in the palace? These questions run through all minds that heard the cry, but none more fiercely than in the mind of Noctis Lucius Cealum.

As the sole protector of the crystal and the last heir to the Cealum dynasty, the young prince was troubled by such a cry coming from his castle. He quickly rolled out of bed and threw on his clothes, if he was to meet an intruder, he would want to be prepared. Flying out of his chambers the minute his boots were tied, Noctis ran toward the source of the commotion. With fear, he realized the visiting princess, Stella's, room was situated in the same area that seemed to be the origin of the scream. Knowing there would be dire consequences if the princess was injured under his roof, Noctis gathered another burst of speed.

After rounding the last corner to Stella's chambers, Noctis stopped dead in his tracks. He fought with the anger starting the boil beneath the calm façade he always wore. In front of Stella's door was a figure, the "intruder". Said intruder was, at the moment, doubled over in laughter, disheveled sandy hair shaking.

"Felix!" Noctis said as calmly as possible, "Why are you in front of Stella's door, and more importantly, what have you done to her?"

The intruder, having not even heard the prince's approach, stood up surprised, then seeing Noctis' stern expression sunk to the floor completely. The prince stood watching him convulse in uncontrollable laughter for a couple minutes, finally his patience broke, "Felix, what is going on? I swear if you do not tell me…."

The threat was left hanging for a couple of seconds while Felix pulled himself together. The lanky man pulled himself up slowly and took a couple of deep breaths, finally when he could control his voice he offered the cranky prince an explanation.

"Look, Noct, this is so not my fault! Gareth put me up to it! I mean he is the one who started it in the first place!"

Felix could see that Noctis was not convinced, nor impressed, or really in the mood at all to hear the whole story, so he began summarizing his antics of late.

"Well it all began that night when you and Stella first talked… Well after she had left you, she was coming down the stairs and Durante, Gareth and I had been walking just around the corner. Man, Noct, you should have been there! She jumped out of her skin we scared her sooo bad! It was the funniest thing EVER!! Then we just…well the temptation was too great Noct! Gareth and I kinda, maybe….umm…." Felix's voice died off as Noctis' face grew more and more stormy.

"You and Gareth what, Felix?" Noctis asked with a sigh.

"Started a contest to see who could scare Stella the best…Gareth scared the crap out of her yesterday by putting a spider in her hair…and I couldn't let him win that easy!"

Noctis put his head in the hand, some days he couldn't believe the situations his friends got themselves into. What made it worse was how, inevitably, every time he would get dragged into their shenanigans. You would think being a prince would offer him diplomatic immunity, but it is a well known fact that with friends, you are never safe!

"Well what did you do then, to make Stella scream like that?" Noctis asked, "I could have sworn she was about to be assassinated!"

Felix's eyes lit up, pleased that Noctis was finally lightening up. Snickering he explained his prank. "Oh nothing that bad, I didn't expect her to freak out so hardcore! I snuck into her room and put a snake in her bed…"

Noctis was taken aback, "You…snuck…a Snake….Felix that is so immature!"

"Aw come on Noct, quit acting like a grown up! Geez! It's not like it was a real snake, just a little rubber one!"

"Oh, sorry Felix" Noctis retorted sarcastically, "Because a rubber snake is sooo much better!"

"Your just mad because you have to act responsibly and don't get to take part in the fun!" Felix shot back.

Just then the first sounds from Stella's room since the piercing scream could be heard. It seemed that the snake had been discovered for what it really was, and the discoverer was not impressed.

"GARETH, FELIX….WHICH EVER ONE OF YOU DID THIS, I AM GOING TO **KILL** YOU!!!!" Stella screamed from behind the door.

Noctis raised his eyebrows at Felix, "Oh yah buddy, that sure sounds like "fun", too bad I am going to be missing out!"

At that moment two things happened. The more positive of the two was Gareth and Durante jogging around the corner. Gareth had an unhindered mischievous smile on his face, and Durante had a look displaying both suspicion and exasperation. Both seemed surprised to find Noctis at the scene of the crime, Gareth's grin grew even wider when he saw the prince.

The second occurrence was Stella throwing her door open in a rage. She seemed surprised to find anyone still standing at her door, but this passed quickly and was replaced by explosive anger. Her piercing glare slowly worked its way over the four, suddenly quieter men. Any trace of a smile was gone from their faces by the time Stella opened her mouth.

"Well, it is clear then who put the snake in my bed…" Stella began, her voice low, firm and all the more threatening, "I have had enough of you guys! If it's not harassing me with gross objects, it's infesting my chambers with creepy crawlers! If it's not sabotaging my chambers it's scaring the living day lights out of me. I am sick of it! I wish you guys would all just disappear!" She was shouting by the end of her tirade, pointing her finger at the guilty party.

She closed her eyes wishing with all her might that when she opened them, the hooligans in front of her, the mischievous bunch who had made her visit a living hell, would simply not be there. She felt an odd sense of release, at finally admitting to herself that they were driving her nuts. As if by acknowledging her unabated anger, she had some sort of power over her tormentors. Feeling a serenity wash over her, she slowly opened her eyes.

Stella stared in shock at the empty space in front of her, as she realized Noctis, Gareth, Durante and Felix were gone.

**Where did they go? What has Stella done to poor Noctis and Gang??**

**There what do you guys think?? Is this story a go? Or a no go?**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank You guys so much for your kind comments! I especially want to thank the people that reviewed: Dawn, Yuki, Sunflower, Anime, and Qwerty. Thanks for taking the time to give me some feedback, I really appreciate it being a new author. Everyone was very nice, and it seems that you guys feel that this story should continue, so it will.**

**Disclaimer: (I forgot to do this for the last chapter, EEK!!) I do not own Versus XIII, Noctis, any of his friends….or anything that Square Enix owns. I also do not own the names Durante, Gareth and Felix, these belong to Anime, she invented them and deserves all due credit for them…. Actually to be honest I really don't anything, so DON'T SUE ME!!**

**Sorry if this chapter isn't very funny….but I did my best ******

**So enough "Dilly Dally" to quote Tifa in AC, here it is!! The second installment of my challenge story!! **

Usually blinking is pretty harmless, though it seemed that for the prince and his cohorts, it was a blink of doom. One second the four of them stood sulking in front of Stella, the next second they mysteriously found themselves in the centre of a ridiculously large red and white striped tent. Dust settled around feet that had seconds ago stood on the cold stone of the palace floor.

Surveying their surroundings, Noctis, Durante, Felix and Gareth found themselves in the middle of a giant ring, with spectator stands on both sides. A quick glance up revealed a strong net, and even higher above, a cable what looked like swinging bars. Durante looked around in shock, taking in the semi-familiar environment. It had been forever since he had set foot in a tent like this, but when he had, it had been for one thing and one thing only.

"EEEEWWWW!" Felix whined as he stepped out of a suspiciously brown, sticky smelly pile. As he was busy kicking the nasty matter off his shoe, Durante shook his head in wonder. That confirmed his suspicions.

"Guys," Durante began cautiously, "Why are we at a circus?"

Noctis turned to Durante, his face incredulous, "A circus?"

"Well that explains the poop!" Felix chimed in, dragging his foot along the ground in an attempt to clear off the remainder of the excrement.

"Okay, but back to Durante's question…Why?" Noctis asked.

"Yah…Where's Stella, and the castle and well…everything?" Gareth breathed looking around in wonder.

"HEY!! What are you guys doing in the ring!! Get back to your trailer!!" A short, stout and fairly dirty man yelled at the four confused men. They just stared in the man, dumbfounded.

"Us??" Felix offered weakly, after confirming there was no one else in the ring with them.

"Of course who else would I be talking to! You guys should be getting ready for the show like everyone else! So unless you are going to clean up that crap you just stepped in, make yourselves useful!"

"I'm sorry, but why should we do anything to help you? We don't even know what we are doing here!" Gareth explained.

"Ha ha very funny Rodrigo," the short man said sarcastically, "You were always such a kidder, come on! Seriously, the boss is gonna have our hides if we don't get a move on!!" The short man stopped surprised that there was no recognition on the four men's faces.

Durante looked at Noctis, who seemed to be as confused as he was, "You know us?" he inquired carefully.

"You guys have completely lost it!! What were you smoking last night that has you so out of it? Of course I know you guys!" The short man exclaimed, then proceeded to name each one of them. He pointed to Gareth and said that his name was Rodrigo and that he was the Caretaker for all the circus crew's kids. Next the short man's grimy hand pointed at Felix, "Dexter, actually, you don't work here! You work at the Food Stuff and More store, it's only a couple minutes walk from here, I guess that's why you hang out so much with these guys."

Noctis was the next one singled out, apparently he was named Eddie, and was the star magician of the Eduardo the Magnificent act, which coincidentally was one of the most popular circus act. Finally the short man's gaze fell and rested upon Durante, "Man, I can't believe you don't remember me Jimmy! How can you not remember your clowning buddy Frank? We have been clowning together for the last six months!"

Frank shook his head, "It doesn't matter anyways, what does matter is that You and Eddie…" he gestured to Durante and Noctis, "Have to get ready for our acts! The evening show starts in an hour! So come on! Let's get to it!"

Frank walked off, suddenly leaving Noctis, Gareth, Felix and Durante alone. They looked at each other's confused faces.

Noctis was the first to speak, which was a first for him, "So we are in a Circus, and I'm…a magician…"

Durante nodded hesitantly, "and I'm a clown…"

Gareth snapped out of the dazed look that had been plastered on his face since he had been told his duties at the circus, "and I'm a…CARETAKER?? of…KIDS???"

"Geez what are you guys so worried about! You guys get all the fun, I work at a frickin' grocery store!!" Felix exclaimed.

"How can it be that there are people here that look exactly the same as us?" Durante asked quietly.

"Yah and what are the chances of that eh?" Gareth added.

Noctis just shook his head and began to walk to where Frank had left, "Oh you know, probably just about the same probability as us getting magically transported to another world…."

**Well there we go, second chapter is fini!!**

**Tell me what you think! ******


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